This document outlines 7 best practices for delivering superior customer support via live chat. These include: 1) Offering chat incentives to encourage adoption, 2) Customizing chat buttons and windows to match branding, 3) Extending personalized chat invitations, 4) Avoiding aggressive chat pop-ups, 5) Maintaining a friendly tone in chats, 6) Responding to customers quickly, and 7) Ensuring agents have product knowledge. Following these practices can help live chat positively influence customer attitudes and support growth in its use.

1. 7 Best Practices for
Originally Posted on
June 7, 2012 by Tricia
Delivering Superior
Morris Customer Support
via Live Chat

2. Live chat’s bubble is on the
rise in 2012, according to a
new study of more than 2,000
US and UK online shoppers. 1 in 5
LogMeIn and the e-tailing Customers
group have released the prefer Live
Fourth Annual BoldChat Life Chat
Chat Effectiveness report
which shows one in five
shoppers prefer online chat
over any other communication
method.

3. This growing affinity for live chat
77% said mirrors a 2010 Bold Software
that live survey that found that once a
chat shopper used lived chat, more
than two-thirds of these
positively consumers actively look for
influenced website that provide it. In
their addition, 77% of those who used
attitude live chat agree that the channel
positively influenced their
about the attitude about the retailer who
retailer offered the channel.

4. The delivery of live chat has
a lot to do with its success
however. Featured here are 7
Best Practices for offering a
superior live chat customer
experience:

5. NUMBER ONE
OFFER CHAT INCENTIVES
If live chat is a new offering, provide
incentives to encourage early adoption. In
a 2012 study, 80% of shoppers said that a
free shipping offer would encourage them
to use live chat services instead of email or
phone, while 74% said an invitation with a
special purchase discount would
encourage them to start using live chat.

6. NUMBER TWO
CUSTOMIZATION MATTERS
Make sure chat buttons and windows
match your organization’s branding and are
visually inviting and appealing to
customers.

7. NUMBER THREE
EXTEND AN INVITING INVITATION
The best invitations to chat feature
personalized brand messaging and address
the specific interests of the customer or the
actions they are taking in a particular section
of the site. Custom invitations have been
proven to greatly enhance response rates.
Make sure your chat offering is in a prominent
location on your organization’s website.

8. NUMBER FOUR
AGGRESSIVE CHAT POP-UPS ARE
TYPICALLY A TURN OFF
Consumers should have the ability to close
or decline a chat pop-up invitation.
Aggressive live chat pops are typically
found to be intrusive and annoying;
consumers prefer chat options that they
are able to initiate on their own terms.

9. NUMBER FIVE
GOOD CONVERSATIONS CARRY A LOT OF WEIGHT
Best practices for live chat include a friendly,
informal tone. If your organization offers
canned responses, try to reword them so that
they don’t sound canned. But, an informal
tone doesn’t mean giving up good grammar
and punctuation rules. A lack of proper
capitalization and punctuation has been
proven to slow reading and cause confusion
for consumers.

10. NUMBER SIX
DON’T MAKE THE CUSTOMER WAIT
Most CSRs are engaged in multiple chat
sessions at one time with different
customers. The key is to never let the
customer know this. According to the
Fourth Annual BoldChat Life Chat
Effectiveness report, 89% say the speed of
agent response and talking with a real
person are critical for success.

11. NUMBER SEVEN
KNOWLEDGE IS KEY
93% of chat users agree that the
product and service knowledge by the
chat agent is the most important
element for a successful interaction.
Agents must know their stuff when it
comes time to chat with their web-
savvy customers.

12. MORE CUSTOMER CARE CONTENT
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN
• Live Chat’s Bubble is On the Rise in 2012
• The 6 Worst (and Best!) Phrases in Customer
Service
• 5 Reasons Why It’s Time for Companies to Chat
• Deliver Superior Online Customer Service with
Parature Chat
FIND THIS CONTENT AND MORE AT http://www.parature.com/blog/